kyleburkle - Again robbie lawler,woodley are the same age as gsp.
Maia is older,wonderboy is only 2 years younger all these guys who were elite in the same era and around he didnt fight.
He didnt,really beat hendricks. Like 18 out of 20 judges had it for johnny.
There was no cleanout. As soon as the division got stacked he left.
You’re talking about age like everyone comes into the sport and has been competing at the same level for some same amount of time, everyone knows that’s not the case.
You say Maia is older, but by the time he made his UFC debut GSP had already climbed up the rankings and fought Matt Hughes not once but twice, this was back in the days when a contender lost he had to string together some wins, GSP fought 5 times before facing Hughes for their second fight, beat him, lost to Serra and THEN Maia made his debut months afterwards.
At this point in time GSP fought one #1 contender after another after another and so on for 7 years, preparing for 5 round fights. Again, this was back when only title fights were 5 rounds, all other fights were 3 no matter if they headlined or not. Most of Maia’s career was spent preparing for 3 round fights, GSP’s was preparing for 5.
So that’s just one example of how age doesn’t paint the whole picture, there’s lots of variables.
Clearing out should be considered as fighting all contenders until there is no more fights that logically make sense, but have to be made anyway. In my opinion Dan Hardy was the first fight that didn’t make tons of sense but happened anyway, he had 4 wins in the UFC and was given a title shot because he’s English and the UFC was trying their best to get that market. The second time he cleared it out was after Hendricks, there was no real contenders at that point, all the names you mentioned at that moment was irrelevant in the division.
Maia was on a 2 fight losing streak.
Wonderboy just beat Cote for his 4th win in the UFC, again that’s not worthy of a title shot.
Tyron Woodley lost to Rory McDonald and looked terrible in that fight.
These are the guys who looked elite at that time? And OP is mocking GSP’s prior opponents?
There was nothing left for him, besides, he made his mind up to leave the sport before the Hendricks fight so I don’t understand the running away argument either. No one remembers the whole lead up to that fight with the rumors it’d be GSP’s last? Hendricks didn’t retire him, he didn’t run away, and he probably thought a roided up cheating Hendricks who turned down WADA testing wasn’t worth his time when he had other things on his plate outside the sport. That’s the reason he left right? He was sick of the lack of testing. He tries to do something to prove the validity of the sport and his opponent turned it down because he was cheating… yeah… let’s make sure to give that guy his rematch.
GSP was right to leave when he did, and was right to return when he did. Despite how people try to discredit him in whatever way they can, he’s the only one out of the GOAT contenders to avenge all losses and finish on top while never getting popped for anything, all the while fighting every contender at the top of their game for near a decade. That’s smart, but it could only make sense here that being smart is somehow stupid, go figure.